Uber Sets Focus On China

Funding for the new campaign comes in at about $8 billion.

China is about to get a whole lot more of Uber! The ride sharing giant has raised $1.2 billion in new funding so that it can expand its business in China so that it can be a real competitor. This time, the funding comes from within China, a search giant Baidu (equivalent to Google) - bringing the subsidiary for Uber China to a massive $8 billion, according to the Chinese news website Sina. Overall, Uber is valued at about $50 billion in the last round of funding.

China's Uber market is one of the fastest growing out of any, and Uber knows it. The company is investing more money there than it is anywhere else, and they are doing it with a lot of help. Just this past June, the CEO of Uber, Travis Kalanick, told his shareholders that he planned to invest $1.1 billion in China in 2015.

However, Uber does have a pretty substantial rival in China that goes by the name Didi Kuaidi. That company has raised a staggering $3 billion in new funding, making that company worth about $16.5 billion - so it seems like Uber just can't rest on its laurels.

For now, it appears that the companies will be running almost political type ads against each other - they will campaign and run smear ads so that people don't want to use one or the other. However, they do have to toe the line because they don't want people running back to traditional taxis - which has been happening in other countries. For now, the ride sharing company will be working on a grass roots campaign to get more drivers which will increase their availability. One thing that Uber has is the fact that it is a worldwide entity and it has broad name appeal.